Apparently, it’s all the rage. Want to prove your manhood? Run in front these bulls. I’ve no doubt that alcohol is involved. Alcohol + explosives or Alcohol + livestock = trouble, a scar and maybe a story to tell later on about how dopey you were. Here is the link to the slideshow on Yahoo . Thanks to Cincinnati Bill for the tip on this one. –fog
You know they say that your corn should be knee-high by the 4th of July. Here it is July 8th. How did I do? Of course that’s the ONE spot in my yard where I get enough sunlight to prove the axiom true–the rest of it lags behind. Of course, even if it matures, I won’t get any of it. The squirrels will. If I had my way the yard would be like Squirrel-Stalingrad. Nature’s little high-wire act, my a**. The pocket gophers I don’t mind so much. Mrs. Pinetar and I have one we refer to affectionately as “Chip”. My cat eats them like popcorn, though. And they are only “sport-kills” as he will never eat them and he’ll eat just about anything he kills.
Mrs. Pinetar is from the city and she has not seen any of these animals mostly. One day I came home and she informed me that we had a “Beaver” in the yard and then produced photos of a groundhog (See Below)
Now no one in my family is mistaking any groundhog. We’ve all shot plenty of them. Even my mother shot a few. Since she’s a lefty, she’s the only one who could shoot out the bathroom window (a great vantage point but not for right handers). My dad is a big gardener and ONE lousy groundhog can DESTROY his garden in one afternoon. That’s why they were dispatched harshly, and still are. I can’t do that in my yard but if my tomatoes and cukes were eaten, I’d have to re-think that one. –fog
What a different kind of day it shaped up to be. Leaving work earlyish, I approached the Tappan Zee bridge only to see a really dark, scary storm right over the bridge. To my right as I approached (North) I saw an unbelievable amount of tan colored dust blown up off the ground and into the air until it merged with the low clouds. (more…)
As many may know, Mrs. Pinetar and I have moved into my grandparent’s home. My grandpa was a lifetime employee of “The Phone Company”, as it was known. He did allright, especially in the depression when they only cut him back a few days a week.
While up in Mass, we also had paninis made in this panini maker.
They looked like this:
I have to admit that I was skeptical of this panini thing but my whole outlook changed after I ate this baby. And you know? You don’t need fancy panini bread and you can really improvise what goes in these things. –fog
Some years ago, I built a gonkulator to display antique light bulbs. Antique bulbs look great because the old bulbs are unfrosted and you can see the filaments–which, if they’re old enough, are in some nice shapes. Here it is:
(I don’t burn these anymore and really only burned them in an apartment in Tuxedo Park where the utilites were INCLUDED. It’s big and I actually built it just for that mantle in Tuxedo Park)
I had bought the bulbs on ebay, one at a time, and got a good variety of filament shapes. I then bought a light vanity from Home Depot and some #14 wire and dimmers. I drilled and wired and set it up, so that you could could give each bulb just enough juice to burn orange and not be brite at all–it looked great. In fact, the whole thing put out a great orange glow like a big candleabra.
The weird thing was, if you listened real close, you could HEAR the filaments making a noise and you didn’t dare turn up the dimmers or you’d blow a fuse (I was careful and never blew one) because this thing was basically one big toaster.
The bulbs were all from the 19-oughts and 1910′s and are still burning brite (I never had one blow out). They really hadn’t built in the obsolensce yet and the thing that makes it work is that none of the bulbs are frosted so you can see right in and the filaments aren’t yet helixed, so they are long and you can see the loops or birdcage twists of filament, all glowing. I thought I was pretty good, until I saw this German guy below:
This guy is lapping the field. I’m thinking that they are pretty expensive (‘sehr teuer‘ in German).
Click here to see the Sprockets Light Art by Frank Buchwald from Berlin (where else?)
Ok, here it is. THIS is the dried flower arrangement that I cut myself by the side of the road last Fall (while the 200+ million dollar Yankees were losing to the Detroit Tigers). I cut some punks (to dry out and burn on the porch) and then thought, “…hey, they could go in a vase”, and then the next day, I cut some more and grabbed some cat tails to see if I could pull the whole look together. See how I did. Now, is this so bad?
You know, not only are they free, but we get to enjoy them as decor and then set them on fire for entertainment in the summer. Where’s the downside?
–fog
See, here’s McGonnigle’s tail. Maybe this is why I think the Phragmites are called “Cat tails”?
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